


Bully

by Aravis_Bryir



Series: California One-Shots [10]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Autistic Hannah Foster, Bullying, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:49:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24251617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aravis_Bryir/pseuds/Aravis_Bryir
Summary: "Just because he's mean doesn't mean that we get to be mean back, right?"
Relationships: Hannah Foster & Ethan Green, Hannah Foster & Lex Foster, Hannah Foster & Webby, Lex Foster & Ethan Green, Lex Foster/Ethan Green
Series: California One-Shots [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1736671
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Bully

At first they didn’t realise anything was wrong. It wasn’t unusual for Hannah to not want to go to school every now and then when she was having a bad day. But she’d normally be fine after a day or two. She’d been having continuous bad days for over a week now and Lex and Ethan were getting worried. Even if she’d had a bad day at school, she’d often perk up a bit once she was home, but that wasn’t the case this time.

“Is today a good day or a bad day?” Lex asked.

“Bad day.” Hannah said for the thirteenth morning in a row. “Always bad day.”

The last part had Lex especially worried. “It’s not always a bad day, Banana.”

“Is now.”

Had there been some sort of change that made Hannah unhappy?

“Has something happened?” Lex asked, stroking Hannah’s hair out of her face.

Hannah shied away from her touch and went into her room closing the door. Never once had Hannah been adverse to Lex touching her. Something was very wrong.

“Ethan did you just see that?” She asked as he entered the room.

“See what?”

“Hannah. She didn’t want me to touch her and went into her room. And before that she said that it’s ‘always a bad day’, and when I said that ‘it’s not always a bad day’ she said that it ‘is now.’   
I’m getting really worried about her.”

“Me too. Something is going on that she’s not telling us.” Ethan ran his hand through his hair. “We need to talk to her.”

“I already tried that.” She gasps coming to a realisation. “What if it’s something we’ve done. What if she’s upset about the baby?” Lex places a hand on her protruding stomach.

Ethan shook his head. “If it was about the baby she would’ve started acting out earlier.”

“Maybe she just didn’t realise how much change there would be until recently.”

“I don’t think the cause of this has something to do with us or the baby. Think about it, she always refuses to go to school and always wants to go straight home afterwards, so I don’t think she   
has a problem with us.”

“You think she has a problem at school?”

“It’s possible, but I definitely think that whatever this is she doesn’t want us to know about it.” Ethan said.

“But she tells us everything. And she knows she can tell us anything.”

“She’s probably trying to deal with it on her own, I guess.”

“I hate seeing her like this, so sad all the time.”

“I know, babe, me too.” He draws her into him, and kisses her forehead as she wraps her arms around him. “But, we’ll figure this out.”

* * *

Ethan drove Hannah to school on day sixteen of the bad day streak. He and Lex had been doing their best to observe Hannah’s behaviour to try and figure out what was wrong, but so far had failed other than know for sure that something was wrong at school. Today, however, Hannah didn’t put up a fight about going to school, she just looked defeated and it was heartbreaking for them to see her look like that. 

He pulled up in front of the school and Hannah started to get out of the car.

“Hang on a second, Banana.”

She slumped back in her seat, not saying a word.

“I want you to know that whatever it is that’s going on with you right now, that me and Lexi are here to help you. We want to help you. If we’ve done something that’s upset you, you can tell us and we won’t get mad or anything, if that’s what you’re worried about. We just want to help you, okay?”

“No one can help.” She whispered before getting out of the car and dragging herself into the school.

As Ethan drove on to work he rang Lex to tell her what had happened.

“I tried talking to her.” He said.

“How did it go?”

“I told her that we wanted to help her and not to be worried at us getting mad at her for whatever is upsetting her.”

“And what did she say.”

“She said ‘no one can help.’”

Lex was silent for a moment, digesting the information. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“No. Whatever this is all about, it seems that she’s just lost all hope.”

“Do you think Webby told her that the apocalypse is coming, or something like that?” Lex asked, trying to come up with an explanation.

“I don’t think so, she normally says out loud whatever it is that Webby tells her.”

“She hasn’t recently.”

“Yeah, but I just think that the oncoming apocalypse isn’t the reason.” Ethan drove into the car park at his work. “I’ve got to go now babe, love you.”

“Love you too.”

* * *

On day twenty, Lex got a call asking her to come and pick up Hannah from the nurses office at school. She’d had a panic attack. Lex phoned Ethan to see if he could get her, as Lex struggled walking the distance to the school now. So it was Ethan that left work early and drove to Hannah’s elementary school, going straight to the nurse’s office.

“I’m here for Hannah Foster.” He said to the nurse who pointed him over to Hannah sitting in the furthest away chair. He crouched in front of her, like he always did when she was panicking.   
“What’s shakin’, Banana?”

She lifted her head up enough for him to see the tears running down her cheeks but said nothing.

“It’s okay, Banana, I’m right here, yeah?” He noticed she was wearing the ‘magic hat’. “Bad enough day to pull out the old ‘magic hat’, huh?”

She lifted her hands up to the hat, gripping it tightly before she harshly threw it on the floor. “Not magic.”

Ethan was surprised to say the least. Hannah had always believed in the magical properties of his old hat. He picked it up off the floor. “Not magic? You know this thing is imbued with the power of Greyskull, right?”

Hannah shook her head furiously. “Didn’t work. Broken.” He bottom lip trembled as tears continues to stream down her cheeks.

“Hannah, can you tell me what happened?” He holds out a hand to her, hoping that she’ll take it.

She slowly grabs his hand and starts to play with his fingers. “Pushed.”

“Someone pushed you?”

She nods.

“Did that make you panic.”

She nods again. “Too much feel. Hurt.”

Ethan deduced that the push made her fall over.

“Where does it hurt, Banana?”

She doesn’t answer, but instead flops off the chair and into Ethan’s lap, wrapping her arms around him. He hugs her back, squeezing as much as he dared. He rubs her back soothingly. Her tears soon seem to lessen and he gives her head a kiss.

“I missed you, Banana.” He says.

She looks up at him confused. “Haven’t gone anywhere.”

“You haven’t given me a hug in over a week. I missed your hugs.”

“Sorry.”

He shakes his head. “You don’t have to be sorry. You’ve been having a rough time, haven’t you?”

She nods and buried her face into his jacket.

“Do you want to tell me why?”

She didn’t move for a long moment, but then slowly moved back enough so she could speak without her voice being muffled. “Mean boy.”

“A boy’s being mean to you? Has he been bullying you, Banana?”

She gives a tearful nod and buries her face again.

Ethan holds her close. “I’m so sorry, Banana.”

“Why you sorry?” She mumbles.

“I’ll always be sorry when you get hurt.” He wipes away her tears. “You getting hurt means I’m not doing a good job at protecting you. I’m sorry I’ve failed you.”

“You didn’t know. Didn’t tell.”

“You tell us everything, Split, why not this?”

She shrugs. “Didn’t want to worry. Lexi can’t get stress.”

“The irony of that is we were so worried about you, because you were always having a bad day and we didn’t know why. And you can’t let the baby stop you from telling us stuff, okay?”

“Okay.” She murmurs. Her panic attack having tired her out, she yawns and closes her eyes, resting her head on Ethan’s shoulder.

“How about we go home now and talk some more when you feel better?”

She nods, circling her arms around his neck as he stands up, placing the ‘magic hat’ back on top of her head.

He heads out into the main courtyard of the school, on the way to the car park. As they walk he feels Hannah suddenly tense as a boy’s laughter sounds from behind them.

“What a cry baby. She even got the school to get her dad. She’s even still wearing that dumb hat!”

“Is that the mean boy?” Ethan asks.

Hannah nods as he turns around to face the boy. He looked like he was about the same age as Hannah, maybe a year older, and had the look of a spoiled rich kid about him.

“I’m sorry, but what did you just say about Hannah?” He addresses the boy, moving towards him.

The boy didn’t seem intimidated at all. “Oh, nothing you wouldn’t already know.” He smiles, thinking that he’s so clever. “Just that she’s a crazy little cry baby.”

Ethan steps up to the boy, towering over him. “Don’t you dare call her crazy.” He says in a low, threatening whisper.

They boy has the decency to look a little afraid. “Well, that’s what she is. Only crazy people talk to themselves, it’s the first sign of madness.”

“Talk to Webby.” Hannah mumbled.

“What was that crazy?” The boy goes to poke Hannah, but Ethan grabs him by the wrist before he can.

“Try to touch her again and I’ll break your hand.” He throws the bows hand down and turns away, heading back to the car. He drives home in silence. He can feel anger bubbling inside of him.   
How dare someone hurt Hannah, the sweetest most innocent kid he’s ever met. She wouldn’t hurt a fly, yet some kid had the audacity to pick on her. He was gripping the wheel so hard his knuckles were white by the time they got home. 

He carried Hannah back inside, like he always did when he brought her home after a panic attack. Lex was sitting on the couch waiting for them, struggling to stand up when they came in.

“Are you okay, Hannah?” She comes over and puts her hand on Hannah’s back.

As a response Hannah wraps her arms around Lex, though her legs remained around Ethan so that he bore the brunt of her weight. Somehow the three of them managed to get over to the couch, where Hannah curled up into Lex, who began stroking her hair.

“What happened?” She looked to Ethan, who was still angry at the boy.

“Some kid’s been bullying her this whole time.” He said through gritted teeth. “He pushed her today, which caused the panic attack.”

Lex hugged Hannah closer to her at that, and reached out a hand to rest on Ethan’s knee. He began to calm down at her touch, and held her hand in his.

“You didn’t hunt him down and murder him, did you?”

“No, but I wanted to. Did run into him though as we were leaving.”

“And?”

“He called her a ‘crazy cry baby’ and tried to touch her.”

Lex let the information sink in. “And what did you do?”

“I grabbed his hand to stop him from touching her and told him that if he tried again I’d break his hand.”

Lex nods.

“Shouldn’t hurt him.” Hannah says bringing her head out of where it had been burrowed into Lex’s shoulder. “Just because he’s mean doesn’t mean we get to be mean back, right?”

“You are absolutely right, Banana.” Lex says. It amazed her sometimes how wise Hannah could be for a nine year old. “Maybe we could try talking to him and find out why he thinks it’s okay to   
pick on you.”

“We?”

“Yes, we.”

We’re a family, Banana, we’ll always help each other out.” Ethan says, ruffling her hair.

“Okay.” Hannah gives a small smile. It’s the first time she’s smiled in twenty days and the small action brings smiles to Ethan and Lex’s faces as well. Hannah rests her head on Lex’s chest and starts to fall asleep. Things were going to be okay now.

The next day Ethan went to pick Hannah up from school after work. He was going to talk to that boy today, and get to the bottom of why he was bullying Hannah.

“How was school, Banana?” He asks as she runs up to him.

She gives him a hug instead of answering. “You talk now?”

“Yep, do you know where he is?”

She points in the boy’s direction.

“Do you want to come or wait in the car?”

“Car please.”

He hands her the keys and she runs off to the car as Ethan makes his way over to the boy. He’s sitting on the edge of the playground, Ethan sits down next to him.

The boy looks up. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Yeah it’s me. My name’s Ethan by the way. What’s yours?”

“Garrett.”

“Okay, Garrett, I want to talk to you.” He begins. “I want to know why you think it’s okay to bully Hannah.”

“I don’t bully her, I just point out the facts.” Garrett says. He doesn’t look up at Ethan, but instead inspects the dirt around his shoes.

“Care to share with me what those ‘facts’ are?”

“She says weird stuff and talks to herself all the time and whenever someone goes near her she starts crying. That makes her a crazy cry baby.”

“Okay, I can see how you’ve drawn those conclusions, but that doesn’t make it right to call her that.” Ethan says. “Have you heard of Autism?”

Garrett shakes his head.

“Well it’s a psychological disorder, that someone can be born with. It affects each person with it differently. For some they won’t be able to do much without help from others, or a person could appear perfectly normal. It also affects how a person perceives the world. This is what Hannah has. It’s sometimes hard for her to learn things and develop at an average rate, for instance she couldn’t walk until she was nearly three. To Hannah the world is enhanced, if that makes sense. She’s sensitive to sound and light and touch in particular. She feels things about ten times more than we do. So when there’s too much light or noise or if someone touches her too much or in the wrong way she gets overwhelmed and her brain doesn’t know how to process all the stimulation, so she panics.”

“Why are you telling me this stuff?” Garrett asks.

“I want you to understand why she is the way she is.”

“Then why does she talk to herself?”

“She has a friend, who to us is imaginary, but to her is completely real. She talks to her friend and her friend talks back. When she says strange things, that’s her telling you what her friend is   
saying. It’s how she knows how to communicate with people, she tells them the things she’s told by her friend.”

“That still sounds like she’s crazy. But that doesn’t matter to you, does it?”

“No it doesn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I love her. When you first meet her she seems odd, but she’s kind and caring and curious about a world she can’t understand, but she tries and she learns. She’s incredibly smart and   
does her best to be the best person she can possibly be. And as she gets older I get to watch her become her own amazing person. It doesn’t matter that she’s got autism. What matter’s is that she gets to be herself.”

“Wow, you really care for her, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“I wish my parents cared about me like that.” Garrett said wistfully.

“What makes you think they don’t care about you?”

He shrugs. “They’re always fighting and always working so I never see them.”

“They’re probably working so much so that they can provide for you. But having money to buy you games and shit isn’t everything. But yeah, it’s rough when your folks are yelling down the   
walls.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not the end of the world though. Life’s a bitch, but if you keep putting one foot in front of the other things’ll get better.” Ethan gave Garrett a pat on the back. 

“It’s not fair though. How come Hannah get’s to be picked up right on time everyday by caring parents when I’m stuck here until mine bother to show up?” He sighed. “It’s not fair.”

“Me and Lex, who you see pick up Hannah, we aren’t her biological parents. You might notice that we look a lot younger than the other parents around here. That’s because Lex is Hannah’s   
sister, and I’m Lex’s boyfriend, and the three of us live together on our own, far away from our parents. And it’s not fair of you to take your frustrations out on Hannah; you don’t know what she’s been through. Maybe if you change your attitude towards her you two could be friends.” Ethan stands up. “It was nice talking to you, Garrett. And hang in there, things will get better.”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks, Ethan.”

“No worries, and if you ever need to talk your feelings out with someone, you can always talk to me.”

Garrett smiles as Ethan walks back to the car, where Hannah sits waiting.

“Good?” She asks.

“I think so. And I don’t think he’s gonna keep being mean to you either.”

“Webby says he’s sad.”

“I think Webby’s right, Split. But hopefully he’ll get to be happy soon.”

“Yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you are being bullied, go tell an adult, be that a teacher or a parent or whoever you look up to. And I hope that you're okay.


End file.
